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Ukraine 2007 Parliamentary Election

President Yushchenko dissolved the Rada on April 3, 2007 and called for preterm elections. Months of political stalemate followed, with the Anti-Crisis Coalition continuing to hold Rada sessions, even after opposition parties Our Ukraine and BYuT resigned their seats and deprived the parliament of a constitutional quorum. On May 27, President Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yanukovych, and Rada Speaker Olexandr Moroz reached a political agreement on new elections that were held on September 30, 2007.

The preterm elections to the parliament (Verkhovna Rada) held on September 30 were a compromise solution to a political stalemate between the president and the ruling parliamentary coalition. Five of the twenty parties and campaign blocs running passed the 3 percent threshold to win seats in the parliament.

Amendments to the election law adopted in June abolished absentee ballots and disenfranchised voters who were abroad three days prior to the elections. Widespread inaccuracies in voter lists were reported as well as procedural violations at some polling stations and polling commissions, but independent monitors attributed these problems to the limited time to prepare for the snap elections rather than government efforts to exclude parties or voters.

International observers judged this vote to be in line with international democratic standards in an open and competitive environment. International election observers reported that the elections were "conducted mostly in line with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Council of Europe commitments and other international standards for democratic elections." While the Committee of Voters of Ukraine assessed the election as free and transparent, it stated in a press conference that up to 1.5 million citizens may have been deprived of their right to vote due to deficient voter lists.

According to the international election observer mission, preliminary administrative and ordinary courts actively adjudicated election-related disputes. The MOI, the PGO and the SBU actively pursued dozens of investigations of reported violations at local polling stations and election commissions, but none serious enough to affect the outcome.

Individuals and parties could, and did, freely declare their candidacy and stand for election. To be registered at the national level, political parties had to maintain offices in at least half of the regions, and could not receive financial support from the state or any foreign patron. The Supreme Court reserved the right to ban any political party upon the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice or the prosecutor general. No parties were banned during the year.

Party of Regions finished in first place with 34.3%, and ByuT came in second with 30.7%. BYuT and Our Ukraine, which came in a distant third (14.1%), garnered enough votes to form a thin three-seat majority. The Communist Party and Bloc Lytvyn, headed by Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, also crossed the 3% threshold. The new coalition formed on December 18, 2007 nominated Yuliya Tymoshenko as Prime Minister; she was confirmed December 18, 2007. The cabinet was split 50-50 between representatives from BYuT and Our Ukraine (which is now called Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense.

Crimean Tatar leaders continued to call for changes in the electoral law allowing them to achieve greater representation in the Crimean and national parliaments; current law does not allow the creation of political parties on the regional level, so Crimean Tatars had to join national political parties or blocs. Only one Crimean Tatar representative was a member of the national parliament. According to the Crimea information portal, the Tatars, who make up 12 percent of the population of Crimea, occupied seven seats in the 100-member Crimean Parliament. Eight of the 25 senior officials in the Crimean government were Tatars, including one deputy prime minister and the minister for labor and social policy, as were two of the 14 heads of raion (county-level) administrations in Crimea. Crimean Tatars remained underrepresented in city councils and city administrations. For example, none of the deputies to the mayor of Simferopol was a Crimean Tatar. The Crimean Tatar representative body, the Mejlis, was not legally recognized by national authorities.